I have been working on the new application for more then a year now. Progress is slow as this all has to be done in my spare time.

Well, it’s time. I can keep on polishing details and keep on developing, but decided it’s time to ask feedback from existing users.

The new application is called Sodadb. Which is short for Simple Online DAtabase. It’s so radical different from the current application, it needed another website.

Don’t worry, the current Grubba application will keep running as is, as I am sure Sodadb will not suit everyone’s needs. As a matter of fact: I am also planning a few updates for the current application in the future.

If you like to check how your current database will look in Sodadb, you can do the conversion wizzard. When the form you like to export to Sodadb is active, go to: tools » export to Sodadb and follow the steps in the conversion wizzard

Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions regarding the export, the use of Sodadb or what ever questions you might have. The faq and tutorials are still work-in-progress.

As I mentioned in earlier posts, I am working on a complete overhaul of Grubba. All the mistakes I made developing Grubba, I tried to avoid this time. Which is frankly mumbo-jumbo as it’s impossible. But hey, you can’t blame me for trying.

The biggest improvement is simplifying the database. Grubba’s db setup is very elaborate, which slows the system down. This time I held on to the KISS principle all the way.

It uses Ajax technology even more. So saving and updating a record will be done without any page-reloads. This will speed up working.

I listened very careful to your feedback and picked out the most asked features, such as:
- More then 1 quicksearchfield. In fact the new layout is a ‘grid’ like layout with all columns shown.
- Improved export, maximized for speed
- Improved import, with import undo events
- File upload is back! Now without the box.net plugin. But with an external fileserver.
- Datefields are back.
- A very good searchtool. You can even use regular expressions to search whatever you want.

It still needs work on a few things:
- external page for your own website
- subusers that can only edit their own records
- sorting out the many bugs…

I am sure the new Grubba will not suit all the users, so I decided to also stick with the current system. As some functions will not come back in the new system.

I am also thinking of making the current Grubba system open source to insure future development. Interested in this? Please post it in the forum

The core system will be ready in December, but then the testing will start. I am looking for serious users who are willing to beta-test the new system. Interested in this? Please send me a message

All in all, great things are to come… You can ask any question regarding the new system via our ticketsystem.

There were always problems with searching date fields, so I decided to stop using date fields.

Just use a normal field and tell the users in the Help text what you would like the input to look like. For instance put: requested date mm/dd/yyyy in the helptext.

This way you can also search by date range (sort of anyway). For instance if you need all dates within the month of December, do this query:
select this in the dropdown = %%
and enter this in the field: 12/%%/2011

You can use wildcards with %% (where each % stands for one character) . So in the end this is a much easier and better way to deal with dates.

The other function is the file upload function. The box.net API just doesn’t work properly anymore. No idea why. To be quite honest, I simply don’t have the time to fix it. I was thinking of renting an image server and do the uploads within Grubba. This would be a great solution, but it will take some time coding and the biggest issue, it will cost money. In this time of crisis donations have dropped, so I am not sure if I can afford this. As always, I am open for suggestions or discussion. If you feed the need to do so, please send me a message via the ticket system.

Today I got an interesting question from Don: He was wondering if the data he enters remains confidential.
And if I monetize customer data in any way.

I am pretty oldskool. Been actively designing since 1999. In the early days the only people who made any money at all where the guys that showed naked ladies on their website. At the risk of sounding very old and a bit like a nag: I don’t really like the ‘modern’ internet. Companies like Facebook really annoy the p$#@ss out of me. Not only because they sell user data, but also because they are not upfront about it. They should be required by law to tell the user in font-size 44 that they do sell your data, before you are even allowed to sign up.

Bottom line is:
I only disclose data if I am required to do so by law. Period.
I do not sell e-mailaddresses. Period.

Please read the terms of use and privacy statement if you need more info.

I am working on an improved Grubba, a sort of Grubba 3.0.
It will be much! faster then you are used to. I’ll keep you posted…

On the less brighter side: I am getting many export problem reports the last few days. I am not sure what’s going on, to be honest, but I will address this a.s.a.p. But it will have to wait, as my holiday is coming up…

A tip: Once you click the export link it keeps on running on the background, even though you are logged out. So just let it run, get a cup of coffee or two and come back later. In the first (welcome page) you’ll find a link to the latest download (only .csv at this point) on the bottom right of the page. This links to your latest download.

I am able to export 99% of the exports without any problems with this method.

Just wanted to share that today Grubba reached the 30.000 active user mark!
I just wanted to say thanks to all the users who submitted feedback and to the users
who made a donation. Thanks to them Grubba will keep on running.